Sony Looks to Break Records by Selling More PlayStation Consoles Than Ever Before This Year

Sony has high hopes for the PS5 in the current financial year as it aims to break PlayStation records by selling 25 million units.

The company briefly mentioned its goals for next year during its latest earnings report, where it revealed the PS5 had now sold more than 38 million units thanks to its best year on the market so far.

The 19.1 million units it sold in financial year 2022-23 weren’t enough though. “We aim to continuously accelerate penetration of PS5 and aim for PS5 sell-in units for the current fiscal year to be 25 million units, the highest ever for any [PlayStation] console in history,” Sony said.

It would certainly be an impressive figure because, as mentioned, no PlayStation console in history has sold so many units in a single financial year, not even the PS2, which is the best selling console of all time with 159 million units sold.

The PS5 is certainly trending towards an incredibly strong year as its sales figures grew significantly as component shortages that plagued the video game industry waned. Sony recorded 7.1 million and 6.3 million sales in quarters three and four last year, compared to the 2.4 and 3.3 recorded in the two before that.

Especially compared to financial year 2021-22’s figures, where Sony sold 3.9 million and two million PS5’s in quarters three and four, Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan’s comments that the stock shortage is essentially over seems accurate.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Slammed on Steam Over Performance Issues

EA and Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has been slammed with several negative reviews on Steam as users report performance issues.

Survivor, the galaxy-spanning sequel to 2019’s Jedi: Fallen Order, currently has a Mostly Negative rating on Steam with only 31% of 1,216 users recommending it.

“Game is extremely fun but performs terribly,” said Steam user Doctor TacoChocolate. “I’m using a 3090 FE and 5700x and getting a consistent 30 fps in some areas. Other areas give me a mostly consistent 45. This is at 1440p.”

Users have also taken to Reddit to voice their complaints, with Delicious_Pea_3706 saying “the concerning comments on performance for PC are true”. Running Survivor on an RTX 4090 and AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D saw it crash not only itself but the entire PC, they said.

“Running a 4090 with Epic Settings and Ray Tracing was getting me around 90 FPS, which is pretty good, but the frame stutters were way too frequent. I don’t want to imagine how bad it must be for mid range hardware.”

Other users reported crashes too, alongside graphical issues, and an “unexpected error” that saw the player bypass story elements without seeing them, forcing them to either continue in a broken game state or load a previous save and hope it worked the second time.

Other users have said that performance issues are mitigated once the player moves on from the first main area of the game, however. “After the first world it ran perfectly fine,” said Steam user bike._. Another user, Al Falsafchy, said: “story [and] combat compensates the lack of performance in the first area”.

There are also users experiencing no issues. “Currently three hours into the game and haven’t had any stuttering while playing on a 3070,” said gildner99 on Steam. “Not sure if I got lucky or what but I have been loving the game.”

Respawn released a day one patch for the game that appeared to address a lot of performance issues, though it also said that more are on the way in the coming weeks.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

It Looks Like Cooking Recipes Are A Thing In Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom

Tasting notes.

We all remember the pain of putting together a really top-notch dish in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, consuming it and seeing the full power of its wonderful effects, only to realise that we have immediately forgotten the recipe and will never be able to make such a tasty treat by mistake again. Fortunately, all that is about to change in Tears of the Kingdom.

Yes, it looks like recipes actually exist this time around! This was revealed on the official Zelda Twitter account, @ZeldaOfficialJP, which (via the built-in Google Translate function), stated that you will be able to “look back on the dishes you made in ‘Cooking Notes'”, where you will be able to find each recipe’s ingredients and effect properties.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

PlayStation 5 Sales Top 38 Million Following Its Best Year on the Market

Sony’s PlayStation 5 has just wrapped its best year on the market so far and has crossed 38 million units sold as a result.

Revealed in Sony’s latest financial earnings report, the PlayStation 5 sold 6.3 million units in the fourth quarter (Q4) of financial year 2022-23. This was more than three times stronger than its sales in Q4 the previous year, where it sold just two million units.

Having sold 32.1 million units as of the end of Q3, the PS5 has now reached 38.4 million units sold. Sony also sold nearly as many units in financial year 2022-23 as it had prior to that point, rounding out the year with 19.1 million PS5 consoles sold compared to the 19.3 million sold beforehand.

The 6.3 million fourth quarter wasn’t its strongest, however, as 7.1 million PS5 consoles were sold in Q3. This is a fairly regular trend, however, as Q3 includes the holiday period which usually leads to significant sales boosts for video game hardware.

The increase in sales overall is likely connected to the fact that PS5 consoles are now readily available as Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan said in January that the stock shortage is essentially over.

The PS5 had encountered significant production issues due to component shortages that plagued the video game industry and beyond, forcing Sony to re-evaluate its sales forecast for the 2021-22 financial year.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor system requirements, PC performance, and best settings to use

I quite enjoy the vwing-vwing lighstabering at the heart of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which is why it now pains me to have an extended moan about the PC version’s technical troubles.

Despite the odd glimmer of joy, like better-than-expected performance on its lowest system requirements, much about playing Jedi: Survivor on Windows suggests it could have used a little more time in the bacta tank. Sluggishness and stuttering are problems on higher-end graphics cards, even before adding the strain of ray tracing effects, and FSR upscaling often fails to deliver a significant performance boost.

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PSA: Your Copy of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Might Need a Big Day One Download

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has a complicated day one update situation that might mean users have to download a hefty patch whether you’re on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, or PC.

EA announced on Twitter (below) that it’s releasing a day one patch for Survivor that address some performance issues, but some PC players are reporting colossal file sizes. Even some players who pre-loaded the game on Steam are reporting a launch day update of up to 128 GB.

EA also released patches throughout the week before launch, meaning that, depending on when users pre-loaded, there might be some updates that were missed. IGN’s day one update on PC came in at 46.5 GB, for example, and while this is a lot less than some PC users’ experience, it’s still a hefty addition for those looking to enjoy the game on launch day.

Those who have pre-loaded the game on PS5 and Xbox Series should have the smoothest experience, as the day one patches here are only a few GB each (though there may also be a mid-week patch to download too that adds a few GB).

Buying Survivor on disc is a completely different story, however, as a significant download is required before users can start playing the game. This is because the file sizes of the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of Survivor exceed the 100 GB that can be stored on the Blu-ray discs used for games.

The PS5 base install size is 147.9 GB while the Xbox Series X is 134 GB, with the remaining data being added to the game through a separate download. Essentially, it’s the same as when Red Dead Redemption 2 or Grand Theft Auto 5 came with an install disc and a play disc, except the install disc is now a download. This also means that, despite being a solely single player game, Survive cannot be played without an internet connection.

While this is advertised on the front of the box in some regions (like in the tweet above), it’s kept to the small print in others. “Internet connection required to download mandatory content updates required to play the game,” reads the terms and conditions on the back of the UK version. “Mandatory content updates require internet connection.”

This is reiterated in the game’s official FAQ, that states: “Players who purchase a physical copy of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will be required to connect to the internet to install a Day 1 patch but can play offline after that.”

It’s unclear how big this download is for disc players, but based purely on the math, it will be a minimum of 47.9 GB on PS5 and 34 GB on Xbox Series X. IGN understands it to be a substantial figure, but EA declined to comment when asked for a specific number.

As noted in the previously mentioned tweet from EA, these complicated day one updates won’t be the last of Survivor’s stream of patches. “In the weeks ahead, we’ll deploy patches that will: fix bugs, improve performance, [and] add more accessibility features,” it said

That being said, it should return to a more familiar (and simple) process after it’s all installed on day one. These patches should also be fairly small on console, though PC could be a different story. The PC version of The Last of Us Part 1 just received its seventh update in a month, for example, which came in at a pretty big 25 GB.

Once Survivor is all installed and players can finally start playing, however, they should have a pretty good time. IGN gave the game a 9/10 in our review, saying: “If Respawn makes a third game like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Fallen Order, it’ll complete the best Star Wars trilogy in 30 years, hands down.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Sega Shows Off Sonic Origins Plus Physical Edition Covers

“You can grab your regional version”.

Sonic Origins might not have had a physical option on release, but thankfully Sega is redeeming the blue blur’s retro collection with a hard copy of Sonic Origins Plus, arriving on Nintendo Switch this June.

In the lead up to this improved package featuring Amy, 12 Sonic games from the Game Gear and more, Sega has shown off the exclusive cover variants for different regions featuring Genesis and Mega Drive designs:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

The Best Nintendo Switch Micro SDXC Memory Card Deals: Get 512GB of Storage for Only $39.99

If you’ve started compiling a collection of digital games, you probably already know just how limited the Switch’s base storage capacity. The Switch and Switch OLED have 32GB and 64GB of internal storage respectively. Some of that is reserved for the OS. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which is out on May 12, takes up over 18GB of storage all by itself. Other must-have titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Pokemon Sword or Shield tap out at 13.5GB each. There’s only one expansion slot in the Switch console so you want to make sure you get the biggest card you can afford.

Nintendo Switch Micro SDXC Memory Cards from $40

These cards are all 100% compatible with any Nintendo Switch, Switch OLED, and Switch Lite console. Some, like the Samsung EVO Select and Samsung EVO Plus are actually rated for higher speeds than the official Nintendo Switch branded memory card. That doesn’t really matter though; the Nintendo Switch can only support U1 speeds, so a U3 speed will just be throttled back down to U1 speeds.

Steam Deck Owners Can Use These Cards Too!

The Switch isn’t the only gaming system that accepts these cards. If you’re a Steam Deck owner, you can also use this card, especially if you picked up the 64GB storage option.

For more deals, take a look at our daily deals for today.

Video: Unboxing The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Switch OLED

It’s already out in the wild.

Ahead of the Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launch early next month, Nintendo has today released its new Zelda-themed Switch OLED system in select regions.

It seems users have already got hold of it as well – with many taking to social media platforms to show off their shiny new system. If you are wondering exactly what to expect from this new set, YouTube channel Glitched (via Nintheorist) has shared an up-close look at the system:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Surpasses One Million Sales Worldwide

Capcom: “Thanks to all of you for your support!”.

Capcom’s Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection is off to an incredibly strong start, with the company announcing it’s already sold over one million copies worldwide in less than a month.

Of course, the game was released across multiple platforms including the Nintendo Switch. This figure also factors in the combined sales of the collection and both volumes of the game.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com